The Labour MP - once tipped as a possible leader of the party - has long been concerned that definitions of Englishness are at risk of being hijacked by the far-right.

"It's part of the broader issue of whether we're going to have a shrill, sour, form of english nationhood based on resentment and loss, or if we're going to build a new positive English nationhood, within a federal United Kingdom," he says.

"The one thing is missing is an identity for England and the anthem itself is part of what we want to take on."

Cruddas believes it's time for those on the left of politics to accept that there's nothing wrong with English patriotism:

"The left has always been more resistant than anyone, they see patriotism as a form of homogenous white english identity, well that's not the case, secondly they see it as jingoistic. I don't think so, I think you could look at a different history of England - from Orwell to the independent Labour party, which has always attempted to contest a romantic notion of what England could mean.

"I accept a lot of people on the left find this alien territory, but I don't see an option, because of worries about the notion of what English identity is, if it's left to those who want it to become a politics of anger."